Cloud Adopters Embrace Cloud For Both Innovation and Legacy Optimization

Once thought to be the answer to deployment options for just the SMB market, early cloud adopters proved otherwise.  Stereotypes about industry, size of company, geographies, and roles no longer hold back adoption.  Cloud adoption at all4 layers of the cloud passed the tipping points in 2010 as a key business and technology strategy (see Figure 1).  For 2011, we can expect users to:

Figure 1. The Four Layers Of Cloud Computing

Dell has just announced it has agreed to acquire Software-as-a-Service integration company Boomi. Terms of the deal were not disclosed and, as usual, the purchase is subject to customary closing conditions. Dell did not say when it expects to complete the purchase of the startup.

Dell chairman and CEO Michael Dell had yesterday teased the press about an impending acquisition in the cloud computing space (see Reuters).

The comment, made at an event in Hong-Kong, sparked a guessing game among tech reporters, but it turns out Dell is picking up a rather small company – Boomi has raised only $4 million in venture capital according to CrunchBase. Nevertheless, it’s a startup that does offer a compelling SaaS platform for many a company.

 IaaS Isn't Just Cloud Computing Fluff:  Survey

CRN Article by:  Andrew R. Hickey

Enterprises are latching on to Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and projects are moving more swiftly than expected, according to a recent survey conducted by the Yankee Group.

Major telcos will be strong force in cloud computing, experts predict

The major global telecommunications companies will become strong players in the cloud computing market as interest from previously cautious end users increases rapidly over the next two to three years, Ovum has predicted.

A new report* by the independent telecoms analyst states that AT&T, BT, Orange Business Services and Verizon Business have made considerable progress in the arena in just over a year, and in terms of services, can now compete with established players from the IT industry.

Cloud computing is starting to become real. I say that not because senior IT leaders at three of Computerworld's most recent conferences -- Premier 100, SaaScon and SNW -- couldn't stop talking about it, but because we're moving out of the "Why should I do this?" stage and into the "How can I do it?" phase.

What's more, the blind fervor is gone, replaced by healthy skepticism and active grappling with the frustratingly complex issues that need solving before CIOs will feel comfortable signing up with software-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service or infrastructure-as-a-service vendors. Many see the potential benefits of at least one of these cloud-based services for their organizations, but they need vendors to clear a number of hurdles before they will seriously consider adopting services-based IT.

You've heard the litany of concerns before: security, privacy, compliance, liability, vendor lock-in, customization, service levels, performance, support and so on.

That's what made the opening presentation at SaaScon 2010 last month so interesting. Kevin Crawford, assistant director of IT for the city of Los Angeles, spoke about the terms of the city's agreement to outsource all of its e-mail to Google. L.A. negotiated the deal through CSC, its direct supplier, and it got CSC to negotiate with Google in turn.

BERWYN, PA--(Marketwire - April 20, 2010) - Boomi®, the Integration Cloud Company™, today announced the availability of trust.boomi.com, a new website that provides system availability, reliability and performance information to Boomi's global community of customers, application vendors and system integrators. The website provides current and historical performance data as well as access to incident reports and maintenance schedules.

Boomi is committed to offering the highest quality, secure application and data integration services to its customers and partners. The site was created to enhance the productivity of the existing Boomi community while also promoting the adoption of cloud integration services in the broader IT and business community.

"Integration is arguably one of the most critical technologies that will power the continued success and growth of the SaaS and cloud computing industry," said Bob Moul, Boomi CEO. "As such, it is imperative for integration services like Boomi to provide transparency into system performance and availability to foster trust and confidence in all customers from the smallest business to the largest enterprise."

 

Which "aaS" is Right for You?  -from the Eclipse Developer's Journal

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